1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to establishing transactional priorities within an electronic personal device, such as a mobile telephone or personal data assistant, and more particularly, to enabling a user to pre-establish service brand identifier priorities.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic personal devices such as mobile telephones, personal data assistants, laptop computers, etc. enable users to establish a service account with one network operator or service provider. When electronic personal devices are utilized within e-commerce or regular commerce transactions, the user must establish business relationships with more than a single service provider. For example, purchases for clothing may be made from any number of clothing retailers and automobile repair services may be provided by any number of different repair service providers.
In utilizing an electronic personal device to carry out e-commerce or regular commerce transactions with more than one transaction service provider, the number of transaction service providers contained in the electronic personal device can become difficult to manage. For example, a user might have an electronic personal device storing transaction information for a number of credit card companies (Visa, American Express, Diner""s Club, Mastercard) and a number of store provided credit services (Sears, Macy""s, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc.). If a large number of these transaction service providers are stored on the electronic personal device, it can become time consuming for the user to scroll through all of the transaction service providers each time a purchase is made. A great benefit would be provided to the user if the electronic personal device could at all times clearly and unambiguously show to a user which service provider or providers should be used at any particular time.
The present invention overcomes the foregoing and other problems with a method and apparatus for providing the payment information stored within an electronic personal device during a transaction. A memory stores a plurality of brand identifiers for a number of transaction service providers each of which has payment information associated therewith. Control logic responsive to inputs provided via a user interface enable the user to establish a priority order for the brand identifiers stored within the memory.
The control logic may establish the priority order for the brand identifiers according to a specified brand identifier which is always to be listed first, according to a brand identifier providing a best commercial condition in a particular situation and according to predefined sets of rules based on the transaction situation. The control logic may further be used to redefine the established brand identifier priority order in response to new input via the user interface.
The brand identifiers are established on a display via the established priority order in response to activation of the electronic personal device. Alternatively, the electronic personal device may include a communication interface enabling the device to determine a particular service provider involved with a transaction. The control logic displays a brand identifier associated with this service provider that has been identified by the user.